A young Adolf Hitler reportedly spent several months dodging Austrian national service in the city. A new book by former Daily Post & ECHO editor Michael Unger, based on the memoirs of the tyrant’s sister-in-law, Bridget, examines the story of the Hitlers of Liverpool

IN JUNE, 1910, Bridget Dowling, a naïve Irish girl, married Alois Hitler Jnr in London, before the couple settled in Liverpool.

On March 12, 1911, their only child, William Patrick, was born in the couple’s pleasant three-bedroomed flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, Toxteth.

Life in the Hitler family was hardly idyllic, according to the new Mrs Hitler. Alois had a “volatile, Bohemian nature” and was an irresponsible, chronic gambler who was “always about to make his fortune”.

When Alois hit it big with his gambling, he was generous and often sent money to his full sister, Angela, and his half sister, Paula, in Vienna.

It was after a big win at the gambling tables in 1912 that Alois began dreaming of building his safety-razor salesman’s business into an international sales organisation, with Angela’s husband, Anton Raubal, at the head of the Central European division. He sent some travel money for Angela and Anton to come to Liverpool from Vienna to discuss the project.

Bridget and Alois went to Lime Street station to meet the 11.30 train from London; but instead of Anton and Angela, a shabby young man approached. It was Alois’s younger brother, Adolf, who came in their place.

Alois was furious. He and Adolf did not get on. “He’s just a good for nothing,” Alois told Bridget.

“From the complicated family history my husband related, I managed to make out that his father, also named Alois, had married three times. The first marriage was childless. My husband and his sister Angela were born of the second.

Adolf, now sleeping, and his sister Paula were the children of the third marriage.” Alois was very angry at his brother’s arrival: “A man in his early twenties so shiftless that he lives in a lodging for old men at the city’s expense! Isn’t that shameful! And he’s my brother.” And a man, said Alois, who the Austrian authorities wanted to jail for avoiding being called up in the Austrian army.

“Adolf has been hiding from the military authorities, consequently from the police, for the last 18 months,” Alois told Bridget.

In April, 1913, Alois bought Adolf a ticket to Germany. There was no alternative. During his Liverpool stay, Adolf hadn’t even picked up enough English to ask directions.

“As I think back to his departure,” says Bridget, “I see again the pale thin face and haggard eyes of my young brother-in-law, as he hastily kissed me and Alois before he boarded the train.

“Who could have predicted that this ‘loafer’ would one day hold my husband’s, my own, my son’s life – indeed the life of all Europe – in his hands?”

THE Hitlers of Liverpool, by Michael Unger, Bluecoat Press, £7.99